Same Ol' Same Ol'

I really haven't had much to blog about recently, I've just been keeping myself occupied with my extracurricular activities.  If you asked me what I was up to lately I'd just tell you "same ol' same ol'".

For example, pool league is going very well and my Tuesday 8-ball team now sits in 1st place after 6 weeks!  I lost my first match of the season a couple weeks ago, but overall I am 4-1 on the year. :) It's funny when teams play us, some call it a "trap" because we have so many low-skilled players and they can't decide who to play against us.  Usually it's a given that a top-player with a 6 or 7 skill rating would play, but a lot of teams aren't sure that's the best strategy against us.  We'll see if we continue that success, things are looking great and morale is high!

Bowling has taken a turn for the worse unfortunately.  I have seen my average drop about 6 pins in recent weeks and I am searching for answers.  Part of me feels it is fatigue, since I bowled 9-weeks in a summer league and when you count the 19 weeks already through this season, that's basically a full season that I'd be accustomed to.  It's also possible that my ball is starting to die, but I'm hoping to get it revitalized and resurfaced over the weekend and also pick up a spare ball (something cheap, plastic, and non-reactive) to make picking up 10-pins more consistent.  There's a good chance our team won't be making the championship game this year, so I figure I'll start working on taking my game to the next level and becoming better for next year!

After Hours Gaming League is starting to trend upwards now as well.  After a slow start, team IBM is now 3-2 on the year and sitting in 3rd place in our division.  We'll have an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot in the last 2 weeks and if we do make the playoffs, I like our team's chances.  I think our team's depth has really improved since last season.

All that remains in terms of league play is IBM basketball, which hasn't started back up yet.  But I'm trying to get back into the groove of playing ball at least twice a week. :)

In other news, I had another Superbowl (I'm sorry, "Big Game") party this year.  This year's theme was "Finish Your 12-Pack".  Since really only one person officially finished the "18-Pack Challenge" last year, I figured I'd make things more reasonable this year.  Anthony ended up finishing his 12-pack of Dos Equis in like 2 hours (congrats Anthony!) but he also passed out shortly after that LOL.  Overall the Superbowl party was another big hit this year, and much of its success can be attributed to the awesome 143" of screens I set up at my house. :)

I added my 46" Aquos and Lucky's 42" Aquos to the kitchen counter tops and the game was pretty much visible from everywhere in the house, even outside on the patio.  There was a great turnout in people (25+) and we had soooo much good food.  Thanks everyone who came, I'm blessed to have so many great friends to party with. :D

I did drive up to Phoenix recently to visit my parents and celebrate my Dad and sister's birthdays.  We went out to Mekong Restaurant on a Friday evening and then out to the Wandering Horse buffet at Talking Stick the next day for lunch.  On my way home back to Tucson however, my car blew a tire and I was forced to change in the spare along the highway about 40 miles outside of the city.

Now it was probably my fault since I've had these tires for about 40,000 miles already and they were probably long due for a replacement.  What makes this story interesting is everything that happened after.  I put the spare on (a donut) and I was able to get the car home to Tucson.  I then went to Discount Tire and I figured I might as well get all 4 tires on the car changed.  The Lexus IS250 has different size tires in the back than the front and they didn't have my back tires in stock at the time.  They said they could get them in by Monday, so I figured rather than have to go in for tires twice, I'd just wait and get it all done on the same day.  I thought I could survive the weekend by driving on the spare with minimal driving distances.

Anyway, later that night my car ended up on 4th avenue.  I was too drunk to drive home that night, so I left my car on 4th.  The next day, I arrived at my car and my spare was flat.  LOL.  Serves me right for not checking the tire pressure on the spare more frequently huh?  I called my friend Jon to help me, 'cause I was hoping we could pump up the flat spare, but the tire was pretty much donesky.  I got a tow truck the next day to tow it over to Discount (this was actually the first time my car had ever been towed) and eventually I got all my tires and the spare replaced.  It was definitely quite the learning experience for me!  So many lessons learned!

These are pretty much all the stories I have for now.  Thanks for stopping by and check back soon for more blogging!

Happy New Year (and other stuff)!

Haven't blogged in a while, but nothing too exciting going on lately.  I guess I'll just give a recap of my stay in Scottsdale over the holidays and other things that are going on in life for me.  Just a warning though, this blog will be all text since I didn't take any pictures!

Before I left for Scottsdale, I purchased a 27" monitor for my computer; w00t w00t!  Why?  Well my parents were talking to me and wanted to get themselves a new monitor since they have a small 19" square screen.  They were hoping for something 22" or greater for less than $70 but I told them they couldn't find one unless it was used.  So I looked online and saw a good deal for a 27" ViewSonic and jumped on it. I'm like that sometimes, I just buy things when I see them and I don't wait very long just for a slightly better deal. So yeah, I brought home my old 22" monitor and gave it to my parents as a Christmas gift.  On a similar note, my dad also wants a 70" LED big screen for $1000. LOL! Not sure I can help him there though... :P

Speaking of Christmas, I went back to Scottsdale for the holidays.  My sister isn't around on Christmas day since she spends it with her in-laws, so in Scottsdale it's just me and my parents.  We went out to Great Wall over by Camelback and 35th for dinner; going out to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas day is pretty much the usual for us.  I really enjoyed the Beef Chow Fun; it's one of my favorite Chinese dishes and I would recommend it at this restaurant!

This trip around in Scottsdale was very productive for me.  Not in the working for IBM sense (I worked remotely, but very light hours).  Actually in the sense of just doing what I do: Making It Happen!  I saw almost all of my friends this break: shoutouts to Band, Keri, Peyman, Priya, Nate, Elizabeth, Kyle E, Kyle K, Kevin, Jeff, Ashley, Matt, Pamela, Jonny, Sam, Wes, Ann, Lucky, Dori, EC, Platner, Lester.  Band and I got a lot of time in at the gym for both lifting and basketball, got ourselves a Winter Bowl victory with Peyman and Nate, leveled up about 11 times on Borderlands 2, and got in some Blackjack time in at the casino taking home respectively $175 and $100 in winnings over the span of I'd say about 30 minutes, lol.  Oh and we shortened our Contra 3 speed run time down to 14 minutes and 1 second. :D

That's what the holidays are for me, just being home with friends and family!  I don't receive Christmas gifts anymore.  I may give a gift to my parents when there's something cool to give, and I get gifts for my neices and nephew who I saw the Saturday after Christmas, but that's about it.  The highlight of the winter break was definitely New Years Eve.  I had almost all of my really close friends all in the same house at the same time and I can't ask for anything more (well maybe if the Tucson folks had been able to make it too, heh).  A house party was pretty much what everyone was looking for this year and I think it was quite a success!

As for now, it's back to reality.  And fortunately I look forward to my reality, which involves me just partaking in all the things I love doing.  Pool league has started back up again and I'm playing on two separate nights now (yeah, I got invited to a 9-ball league on Mondays now too).  Our Tuesday 8-ball team is named "The Dollar Menu" this session and we all have nicknames from items off McDonald's Dollar Menu.  They'll be referring to me as Andy "Sausage McMuffin" Lin!

The second half of IBM Bowling League is back on this Thursday.  We currently have a 5-3 record and have to build on that so that we can make the championship game.  I've contemplated buying a second bowling ball that is non-reactive to help me pick up those 10-pins more consistently, but I might hold off until the off-season to work on that.  Will this be my first season as a 200 bowler?  My average sits at 199 at the moment!

After Hours Gaming League for StarCraft 2 also starts up on Sunday.  As captain of team IBM, I have to bring my team back to the finals and actually bring home the trophy this season. Our team has improved slightly since last season but so has almost every other team, so it'll be a challenging season ahead!

I also look forward to IBM Basketball League and defending my title!  They have been asking me to take over as the league commissioner, something I have accepted verbally but not officially.  I guess it's just in my blood to take over as the lead on things.  Good ol' reliable and responsible Andy I suppose.

TL;DR version - It's a new year and I certainly look forward to it.  I continue to grow as a person and realize what makes me happy in life and I must say I'm really enjoying where I am right now.  I hope everyone else is as happy as I am and wish you all a great 2013!

When Shit Happens...

I was depressed from having a really bad week.  I got into that mentality that everything that could go wrong would and started questioning why this was happening.  But time passed and I came back down to earth and realized, hey, sometimes shit just happens.  Sometimes it's your fault and sometimes it's not, but you can't let it affect your mood.  When you start thinking poorly, you start acting poorly, and let's be honest, feeling depressed doesn't feel good, so why go there?

When shit happens, you just have to man up and take responsibility, whether it be of your own actions or someone else's, 'cause chances are there's not going to be anyone out there to take care of you.  I believe you have control over about 95% of things that happen to you in life, which I think is true 'cause I earned the good life I live right now, no one just gave it to me.  Anyway, I feel a much better now and am glad, because depressed Andy is quite the debbie-downer and no one likes one of those!  So moral of the story is: When Shit Happens, Make It Happen!

Dealing with Racism: It Can Be Tough To Be Asian Sometimes...

It's 2:47am on a late Tuesday night.  I played my typical round of APA pool league at the Fox and the Hound earlier tonight, business as usual.  I got invited to go to a friend's house afterwards to hang out, and seeing how I'm usually in the mood to build friendships, I went, along with my friend Anthony.  Things were going alright, the host was very congenial, letting us play on his shufflepuck board and whatnot, and we chilled inside while getting ready to play a friendly game of poker.  After about an hour since Anthony and I had been at this house afterparty, my friend who originally invited us tells us that we should leave...I guess the notion is we're not really welcome here anymore.  Supposedly the host was not told that myself and Anthony would be arriving, and there was an argument between my friend who invited us and the host.

Now, usually I would just think that the owner of the house was no longer in the hosting mood, but people at this party were talking and some threw out the theory of racism (mostly based on the fact that he had Confederate flags hung along his walls).  While I have been exposed to racism before, Anthony came from a much harsher upbringing than myself.  He claims that South LA where he grew up was extremely harsh on the minorities, especially Asians who were such a small part of the population.  He also claims that he was held up at gunpoint before because of his ethnicity.  I for one have never had to deal with such extremities, but seeing how Anthony drove us tonight, he was ready to hightail it out of there.  In fact, he was ready to jump the wall and run, while I didn't think much of it.  I was like, I'll just walk out the front door here, say goodbye to the fella, shake his hand and thank him for having us over in his nice home.

What Anthony has been through is very unfortunate, but it's not without question that dealing with racism does happen and it is very depressing to go through.  While I rarely try to think of it and sometimes even forget that I myself and Asian (I just try to mesh with whoever I am with, regardless of their race),  it has come up in the past where I question whether or not someone dislikes me because of my race.  For example, going to the gym I have wondered if a guy won't let me work in with him on a machine because I'm Asian.  And too many times I have felt rejected by women because I felt they just don't want to date an Asian guy.

Fortunately, most of my friends of ethnic backgrounds have not had their lives challenged and I hope they never do.  However, it never fails to depress me when I hear about racial discrimination because I myself have been in the crossfire.  And I think it really just centralizes around the white dominated society we have in America.  People wonder why all Asians know each other, but the answer is sometimes very simple: we've all been through the same challenge of being a minority trying to survive in a non-Asian-dominated society.  It's simply the hard truth.

I once had a Caucasian friend tell me that he disliked going out to places where he was like the only white person in the room.  Welcome to my everyday life!  But I don't hold a grudge against anyone 'cause many only trust what they are familiar with, and so many have not been exposed to these types of issues.  Anyway, dealing with racism can be tough.  I just have to try and remain optimistic and trusting of strangers that it's not an issue, just so I can be myself and live a normal life.

Hey, at least my cat Duncan doesn't even know what the fuck racism is.  Love you Duncan!